Mile Markers: Spring Training

Last week’s workouts truly felt like training for a spring half marathon. Our weather has been pretty awesome lately. We have had more sunny days (or at least, partly sunny days) than rainy days. It’s still been chilly, but it can be 35 degrees all it wants if that means some sunshine!

From a running perspective, one of the best parts of living in the Eastside of Seattle area is the wide variety of options for running. If you want hills, you don’t have to look far – rollers and steep climbs abound. However, flat and fast are easy to come by with the numerous paved bike/multi-use trails that connect throughout the metro area. My May half marathon is flat, flat, and more flat, but I’ve been trying to hit hills on many of my runs for variety and strength.

Monday: 5 x 5 minutes at 10K pace (8 miles total) & strength training

This run was blissfully chilly and sunny. After my warm-up, I hit the lap button on my Garmin to start the workout… and then looked down at my watch several seconds later to realize I hadn’t changed the type of interval from a recent workout. My watch was programmed for 5 x 5 miles, which is definitely not the workout I wanted to do! I am just glad I caught that only about 30 seconds in, and not much later!

Once I reprogrammed my watch and started the real workout, this run felt very good: I felt smooth in my gait and strong throughout all intervals. My first interval was at a 6:58/mile pace, my middle intervals at 6:54-6:56, and my final at a 6:51.

In the evening, Ryan and I went to the gym to strength train together. Now that he has finished his spring half marathon, he is shifting his focus to building strength and maintaining endurance. I enjoy having company during my strength workouts (versus strength training while he was running on the treadmill). I did three sets of some medicine ball exercises, mini band exercises, and negative pull-ups.

Tuesday: 5 mile easy run

The increase in intensity is reflecting in my easy runs: Ollie and I averaged a 9:22/mile pace on this run. I don’t think Ollie likes it when we run slower on these easy days, although this dog would never say no to a run.

And yes, Ollie has to sit in the car now if I take Instagram photos. Why? Because, as you might be able to see in the background, DUCKS.

Continuous tempo runs provide a good assessment of fitness approaching a race. I averaged a 7:19/mile for the 5 mile tempo run, which is a good progress point for the upcoming half marathon.

I noticed an improvement in my negative pull-ups this week. When I started doing those about a month ago, I had to step up to the top position; this session, I was able to jump up from the bench and use the momentum to raise myself into the top position of the pull-up, and then slowly lower down.

Thursday: Rest day

Seriously, rest days are awesome. Complete rest days motivate me to train harder, because I know I have a day to completely savor rest each week.

Friday: 14 mile long run

The temperature was about 38 and there was a light drizzle of rain, so I dressed for cold rain just in case things got worse. At mile 1, I thought, huh, this isn’t bad, maybe I can drop my rain jacket back off at my car. Fortunately, I didn’t, because it started to SNOW at around mile 6. SNOW! (By 1 PM, it was sunny, naturally.)

I chose a hilly route for this run, which made it physically more challenging but mentally easier, since the miles ticked by quickly thanks to the constant variety.

Saturday: 5 mile easy run

Ryan and I took out both dogs for a short and easy run. Charlie slowed down a bit mid-run, so we all slowed down rather than push him. Honestly, after the long run, the slower pace felt nice.

Sunday: Pilates & Ski day

Before we headed out on the slopes, I did a short Pilates workout. Sunday might have been our final ski day of the season, as it was the final ski day at Summit East. We made the most of the sunny day and ventured onto several blue runs and had such a blast!

Reader Interactions

Comments

Thats nice that you have hilly and flat options! If I stay really close to home it’s pretty flat, but any farther outside of my development and I cant avoid the hills. Its nice though to use the treadmill if I want a flat run and outside for hills. I’m kind of jealous of your weather! Looks like your training is going great!

Nice week of workouts! I choose hilly routes over flats the majority of the time. Although for my tempo run on Thursday I purposely headed out to a super flat area. But then I had to run UP hill to get home after I was done with it. Not my best move!

What a great week! Nice 7:19 pace – that must have felt really good and a confidence booster for sure. Glad you kept the jacket on. Nothing like surprise snow in March 🙂 Speaking of snow, how great you were able to ski one more day. We were out this weekend as well and I think our mountain has plans to stay open though mid-April!!

Great week for you! As you know, it’s pretty flat here in the Chicago area and that is what I prefer! We don’t have much in the way of hills. I do plenty of training at CrossFit to help me when I do encounter hills. I loathe hill training!

It is wonderful you had one more ski day. I know you’ll miss it this summer. A variety of terrain to train on is very helpful. I don’t like pancake flat courses, preferring small rollers or even a moderate downhill grade. Thanks for linking!

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Welcome to Team Norris Running!

Hi, I'm Laura! I'm a distance runner, RRCA certified running coach, and outdoor enthusiast living in Northwest Indiana. Whether you want to run your first race or qualify for Boston, I'm here to help you achieve your personal best with training tips and individualized run coaching.